… faced with someone RPing something completely outlandish in character? For instance, you come face to face with a species from a different game, or a werepyre or vampwolf, or even 10ft tall Gnome. Things along the lines that really, really don’t fit or make sense at all. I don’t mean like GG pot users or things that can kinda make sense, and I don’t mean things you disagree with along those lines. I mean things that 100% don’t make sense. Do you just ignore them if they approach? Muse them with interaction on a funny scale? Whisper them and try to help?
Moridunum is right – the only productive response is to simply not engage. This goes for any roleplay that you’re not interested in. Both WoW and roleplay itself are hobbies; they’re optional and we engage with them for fun. If you’re not having fun? Then it’s time for you to one-eighty and go elsewhere.
If you really want to acknowledge them, especially if it’s something that’s super outlandish, you can just have your character think that said person is insane, lying, or making an impressive display of illusion magic.
My preference is the first option (I like to curate my time and avoid things I dislike) but the latter works too.
To be fair, those people probably weren’t looking for feedback or criticism. Unsolicited advice can often read as an attack, especially when the roleplay community is hardly known for its calm and measured skills at communication.
Depending on if I have time (some people will just stand in my face and if I don’t say something immediately, they leave) I try to at least whisper them that I’m not interested in RP with them, if it’s something I absolutely do not want to interact with. Some people have been rude about it but I just simply remind them that it’s not personal - nor that deep.
After all, why should they be made to RP with someone who doesn’t want to RP with them? It’s better I inform them so they can move on and find a better match.
That’s pretty much the only option most of the time, but in places like Stormwind or Darkshire where you do have people who will engage with concepts like man’ari, or dark rangers, and all of that stuff, it can be kind of awkward when you’re the only one ignoring them when approachd by something kind of outlandish.
I have a particular memory from Duskwood where some half-naked worgen approached myself and a friend and immediately lore dumped about all the Pack RP they were doing and both of us just were like
“Huh. Yes. Okay. Cool,” just minimal responses, zero OOC investment, soon as they left we carried on the conversation we were previously having LMAO
I had a similar situation once with a Broker during the SL period that was walking around Stormwind. Decided to do a lore dump of the Shadowlands on me and a guildie. Just called him a crazy man IC and walked off…
There’s just not much else to do imo, either you ignore such outlandish concepts, or call them a bunch of loons IC.
I only got back to the game recently and haven’t seen much of this kind of thing, but what I have I’ve just been ignoring. Like those fox people meowing at each other in the middle of Orgrimmar I walked past the other day.
I’ve by and large sadly resorted to just ignoring/avoiding them. Even the most diplomatic approach is usually met with vitriol and a know-it-all attitude where they’ll then poorly recite lore a friend misinformed them about to you.
If I get a particularly approachable vibe from someone I’ll help as I can but by and large, I opt to preserve my time and sanity.
My first response is usually to chuckle in real life, have a good laugh if you will, make a few jokes, and assume they are new to RP. Go with the flow as long as they are not trolling, or act in a problematic way.
Sometimes I interact, sometimes not… usually quite relaxed about it.
Have seen so much outlandish things over the years… so, just laugh it off
Blizzard themselves make plenty of pop culture references, so you know…
I met Geralt of Rivia a few years ago, regret not asking for his autograph… would have been a ricer elf now, selling it on the auction House ( )
It depends on the scene, whats the outlandish display and how the others are reacting to it.
If they are alone, doing insane stuff like dressing up like a dreadlord and pretending to one-on-one Turalyon, it can easily be ignored well enough.
If they have been RPing well, but then they drop a bombshell on you that they are a half-green dragon or something, you can either have a bit of fun picking apart their logic (Which usually ends up with them leaving you alone) or you find an excuse to be anywhere but near them.
If you ignore them, they usually go away, but if you have been RPing with a group of people and they acknowledge the outlandish individual, then you pretty much are now excluded from the RP. You kinda are left out when people pretend that Man’ari is only there to flower shop, or the San’layn is just such a lovely-dovey individual.
And usually, any feedback is met with strange hostility, or worse, others rallying to defend which sorta send quality down the toilet.
I leave. Lore-bending is fine we all do it, even bringing in an external concepts and adapting them is fine - maybe even a necessary part of rp. But just straight copy pasting or blatant attention seeking like as 10 foot gnome as described is just an invitation to an ulcer.
Usually these are the types to go “how dare you question me?!” no matter how kind the constructive criticism. From the 10,000 year-old night elves born in darnassus to the literal anime protag knockoffs, I rarely bother anymore.
Usually shoot a whisper saying something like “Hey thanks for the interest but I am not interested in rp with you currently. Good luck finding some though.” and leave it be.
